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I’ve been working on a few projects recently including Alice in Wonderland. I like to explore lots of different options when I’m designing a character. This is just the initial amount of sketches with reference to the original illustrator Sir John Tenniel in the top right. I then chose the designs I like the most and develop them further with more variations in shapes.

I like to get the reference right first and this helps me learn more about the character, but I think having fun and trying crazy variations is also very important to the creative process.

I’ve also been doing some warm up exercises I learned from the Schoolism course I did last year (Character design with Stephen Silver). There are infinite variations you can create with the circle, square and triangle as a starting point but here are just 3. the top one is the closest to the original reference but obviously stylized somewhat.

I just finished reading Gods Graves and Scholars last night (a classic book about all the pioneers of Archaeology).

I dare say it was on my reading list in university but it somehow passed me by which is a shame because its a great read.

If you haven’t read it you must, especially if your into the exploring and adventuring side of archaeology and it explains how it all got going as a science.

I like to research things for my illustrations to try and get details right and to work up inspiration for future drawings. I also wanted to use my archaeology knowledge more in my artwork than I have previously.